Clovis Unified to build $77 million Satoshi Hirayama Elementary in fast-growing area

Clovis Unified School District is planning a new $77 million elementary school aimed at serving fast-growing communities across Fresno County as the district’s enrollment climbs past 43,600 students. The district has gained more than 1,000 students in the last two years, driving the need for additional classroom capacity and capital projects.

A separate project listing on Bush Construction’s website describes Satoshi Hirayama Elementary School in Clovis as a 75,000-square-foot campus developed on a 35-acre site. The Bush Construction copy states: “As the general contractor for Satoshi Hirayama Elementary School in Clovis, CA, we developed a 35-acre site with full grading, utilities, and infrastructure. The 75,000-square-foot campus includes classrooms, a multipurpose building, library, cafeteria, and administrative spaces, along with outdoor learning areas and sustainable landscaping. The school was built to support Clovis Unified’s whole-child mission through flexible, future-ready spaces. We’re proud to deliver a modern campus that honors Satoshi ‘Fibber’ Hirayama’s legacy.”

Those two sets of facts together show both a district-wide push to expand capacity and a completed or active campus project in Clovis, but the district’s announced $77 million elementary and the Bush Construction Satoshi Hirayama listing are not explicitly tied together in public materials. Key details remain unconfirmed: whether the $77 million budget applies to Satoshi Hirayama Elementary, the project’s funding sources, the construction timeline, student capacity, and the school’s precise parcel location within Clovis or unincorporated Fresno County.

District officials have framed schoolbuilding as the response to steady population growth across Clovis Unified’s broad boundaries, which include the city of Clovis, parts of Fresno, and unincorporated areas. “Over time, as the cities have grown and the populations of the cities have grown, so has our enrollment and we’ve built schools over the years as we have faced overpopulation of our existing schools,” Clovis Unified chief communications officer Kelly Avants said, linking the new construction plans to the district’s recent enrollment surge.

Clovis city planning dovetails with the district’s expansion: the city has added about 10,000 residents in the past five years and is approaching a population of 130,000. City plans for three neighborhood villages, each designed to accommodate roughly 30,000 residents, are intended to feed future demand into Clovis Unified; one village, Loma Vista, sits in southeast Clovis near the district’s Terry Bradley Education Center site. The Bradley project represents the district’s larger capital program, with a reported $600 million price tag for the Terry Bradley Education Center in the city of Fresno’s potential Southeast Development Area.

For now, the district has not published bond or grant details related to the $77 million project, and Bush Construction’s project page does not list a cost or opening date. Bush Construction lists offices at 518 N Redington St., Hanford, CA 93230 and 2056 Shaw Ave., Clovis, CA 936117, phone (559) 584-1575, and California license number 492686. Journalists and residents seeking confirmation should ask Clovis Unified for budget documents, site maps, enrollment projections tied to the new school, and a construction schedule.